‘Despicable Me 4’ Director Chris Renaud Takes Us Behind the Scenes of the Super Villain’s Next Adventure

This article was written for the August '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 342).

Former supervillain Gru is back at his mission as a reformed baddie in one of this summer’s biggest releases — Despicable Me 4. This time, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) must fight evil while trying to manage being the father of a newborn, Gru Jr.

Fans will be happy to see familiar creatives in the credits. The film is directed by Chris Renaud and co-directed by Patrick Delage, who makes his feature film debut on this movie. Chris Meledandri and Brett Hoffman are producers on the project. Mike White and Ken Daurio wrote the film.

The fourth feature’s plotline revolves around villain Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), who escapes from jail with his girlfriend and seeks revenge on Gru and his family. Gru must then rise to the occasion while still attending to his responsibilities as a father.

“I think that we always try to think of ideas that are universal and relatable,” says Renaud in a recent interview with Animation Magazine. “We started this story by talking about the family moving and leaving their familiar home. And that’s obviously something that a lot of us have gone through. I went through it when I was 15. It was very kind of a life-altering experience, as I’m sure it is for a lot of people. So that seemed like a great place to start.”

Growing Pains

Renaud, who also directed Illumination’s two previous Despicable Me movies, as well as two The Secret Life of Pets features, says one of the rewarding aspects of this franchise is that you can tell a lot of different stories based on a character or group. “You can look at a family problem or dynamic and who’s the new villain that group is going [to] go up against,” he explains. “There are also certain elements in this movie like the talent show, which a little bit comes from my own experience playing with friends, so you always bring your own thoughts and ideas and experiences in life. I’m a parent with two kids, and a lot of the filmmakers are parents too, so it’s always good to have that ability to create these universal concepts that everybody can really relate to. We’re also interested in finding the comedic way to tell the story and to make those story ideas funny.”

As Renaud and his team approached DM4, they understood that advances in animation tools would make this installment a little less difficult to make.

‘I’m a parent with two kids, and a lot of the filmmakers are parents too, so it’s always good to have that ability to create these universal concepts that everybody can really relate to.’

— Director and exec producer Chris Renaud

“As a director, honestly, it’s gotten so much easier,” says Renaud. “It’s so much easier than the process when we made the first Despicable Me. On our first film, we were trying to figure out the new pipeline and new tools. A lot of what we were doing was just policing for mistakes. It could be a bit of a fraught process. Now, most of our discussions really are about creative choices. There was one shot I can think of in this that we just decided we didn’t need. It was good and we [were] going to achieve it, but we thought maybe we shouldn’t. That’s a creative conversation.”

The director says he and his team always ask themselves whether something is really worth doing. “You’re very free to try so many things,” he adds. “I found it to be easier and easier as the tools have advanced. The design language has evolved a little bit, particularly in this movie because this movie is a very grounded idea. It’s in the suburbs, and it’s not as kooky as stealing the Moon — or trying to steal the Moon. So, there’s balance to that a little bit. Despicable Me, which is very graphic and has a European-influenced design style with this kind of very normal world they’re going into, which was the point of their sort of leaving their neighborhood. So, you have to kind of [have] the design language between the two; you have to kind of figure out how to bridge that.”

In addition to Illumination’s signature design, the character of Gru is heavily defined by Carell, whose audacious performance brought the character’s idiosyncrasies out in full view for the audience. For Renaud, there’s just no one better to work with on this kind of project.

“I think [Steve’s] performance defined what we look for in other actors to support that character,” says Renaud. “We want to be cooking up kind of a bigger-than-life version of these characters. Steve is obviously doing an accent, and it’s got real scale to it. And that’s really what we look for in people that are going to be part of this universe as well. For me, personally, I love working with comedians and I love working with people who can take their characters over the top and find the humor in everything that happens. That’s why a lot of people we work with are comedians and Saturday Night Live alums. It’s because that show is essentially character creation. Our characters really require a lot of broadness, and because the actors are often comedians or from SNL, they are perfect to fill out these animated characters.”

Of course, there were some challenges. “They only have their voice, and there’s no physical way for them to fill out the characters, and there’s no camera to pick up their facial expressions, their body language,” explains the director. “The performances need a kind of scale when they go to the audio recording. With Steve, we sort of landed on this idea with Gru as being this dad who is struggling with his choices with wanting to be a parent and wanting to be working too. It’s also the accent that you hear, and again, the broadness of it, that defines a lot of the storytelling.”

Starring alongside Carell, reprising his signature role as Gru, and Ferrell as new villain Maxime are Miranda Cosgrove playing Margo, Joey King as Poppy, Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde, Stephen Colbert as Perry Prescott, Will Arnett playing Mr. Perkins and Sofía Vergara as Maxime’s girlfriend, Valentina.

Those Brilliant Voices

Renaud says he was thrilled to have so many highly skilled actors in his voice cast. For him, it makes things more defined and appealing for the audience when the characters are portrayed with real imagination.

“Steve [Carell] is very thoughtful in his approach to Gru, as silly as the movies are,” says Renaud. “He really has a point of view on it. He comes in with a point of view, and we talk, and he’s always suggesting things that give more to his character. He really thinks about what it should be. How you play that is a tricky moment, because [Gru’s] trying to reassure his son while he’s also living a kind of secret, undercover life. Again, it’s a testament to Steve’s performance. I think it works as well as it does [also] with Will Ferrell because the character was named Maxime Le Mal and Will is so committed. All you can do is jump in. Though we record the voices separately, you feel like Will and Steve are right there in each other’s worlds. And you feel that with all the actors in the film. It’s the kind of thing that we can’t go without and always want to have. You always want actors who can become perfect fit with the two or more other people.”

Universal released Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 in theaters on Wednesday, July 3.